1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to arrangements for holding various items on display in retail establishments or the like, and more particularly to display racks designed for holding essentially flat items, such as greeting cards, brochures or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are already known various constructions of display arrangements, among them such that are especially suited for holding essentially flat (e.g., relatively thin sheet-shaped) items or objects in respective pockets staggered relative to one another in the vertical direction. In many instances, each of such pockets is dimensioned for receiving a limited, yet still quite substantial, number of such items (greeting cards with envelopes, pamphlets, or whatever such items may be), usually all of the same kind, so as to offer the prospective purchaser or taker of such items a variety of such items in a close proximity to one another, without having to replenish such items every time one of them is taken away.
In stationery or department stores, such display arrangements are ordinarily constituted by rather sturdy permanent structures made of wood, particle board, rigid plastic materials or the like. However, there are applications where the expense involved in purchasing, erecting and/or maintaining such permanent structures is not justified either because the demand for such items is relatively low (but not low enough to dispense with this kind of items altogether), or because the size and/or location of such a display is to be changed frequently or occasionally (in which case the dismounting and re-erecting of such permanent structures would put an unreasonable burden on the person in charge of rearranging the display), or simply because the money for such permanent structures is not available at the moment, or for other reasons.
For these circumstances, there have already been developed in the past semi-permanent display structures made of corrugated board or similar relatively inexpensive materials, but yet sufficiently sturdy to withstand the rigors they are exposed to at the respective establishment using them, if not forever then for a sufficiently long time to make them economically attractive despite such lack of permanency. Not only are such display structures relatively inexpensive (an important but often not decisive factor), but they are also relatively easy to move from one location to another (with or without the items) and, if need be, easily disassembled for storage or transportation while occupying only a minimum space, and just as easily re-erected, on an as-needed basis.
One problem encountered with these semi-permanent structures in the past was, however, their potential for mangling the items accommodated in the respective pockets. In this respect, it is to be realized (besides taking into account the fact that human intervention is ordinarily required before any such item is actually damaged) that the generally V-shaped cross-sectional configuration of the respective space or pocket receiving such items (or item groups or supplies) is the primary cause of such a danger. More particularly, as the pocket converges in the downward direction (until it reaches a "bottom line"), some of the items will slide deeper into the pocket than others while the group of them is inserted, but all of them will be squeezed at their lower ends in the process.
Now, when subsequently one of such items is removed from the respective pocket, the considerably compressed lower regions of the effected adjacent items will quite vigorously rub against one another. The situation is even worse when the person who had removed such an item subsequently tries to return it into the pocket and pushes it down to get it "into its right place", since by that time the other items have already readjusted themselves to the absence of such an item, and the "right place" is gone and must be recreated by forcing such other items out of the way. While one such removal and return may not do much damage, if any, multiple ones may; besides, the need for the individual taker of an item to use large force, in relative terms, for removing and returning the item he or she is interested in is an inconvenience at the very least, and a decisive factor in causing the interested person to eschew taking the item at worst.